And Why You?

After a crazy day of travel, December 31 was bound to be a little less eventful, and it was. Matt, Jeremy and I headed out around the city of Minneapolis to check things out on a day where it was no warmer than 10 degrees Fahrenheit. We woke up and it was -9 degrees out!

We checked out the new Guthrie Theatre and the Walker Art Museum and did some driving around a couple lakes (Lake of the Isles and Lake Calhoun to be exact). We then did some shopping for dinner including a stop to the liquor store.

When we got back, we took a bit of a nap, which was very welcome. Then it was time for dinner.

Dinner consisted of “snacks” which was a great idea. We had some deli salads, sushi, cheese and crackers, petit fours and more. It was a good way to spend NYE dinner.

We then went off to Jeremy’s friend’s place for the NYE party. The place was a beautiful loft which apparently was just sold, so this was the last big hurrah. It was a bit of a fun time, but Jeremy and Matt and I decided to head home right before new year’s to enjoy it at home with each other. We stopped off to get some pizza on the way and got home with about 5 minutes to go before New Year’s. We all said happy new year to each other and then turned on family guy for a couple episodes and then it was time to bed.

One thing (other than the cold) that has been notable about my time here: every time I have gone to sleep here, I have had very vivid dreams, a couple of which I remember, but I won’t recount here. It’s just been very interesting that I have had so many vivid dreams.

Today, we are going to have a nice luncheon at home and then we are planning to see the movie Milk. Should be a nice low key start to the new year. Lord knows that I could use a bit of low key right now.

Happy New Year all!!!!

Right now I am sitting on a place in Duluth, Minnesota. For those who don’t know, Duluth is about a 3-hour drive (and about a 30 minute flight) from Minneapolis, which is my intended destination ultimately for today. Here’s a lovely rundown of what has happened so far:

The day started pretty routinely with my brother-in-law taking me to T.F. Green Airport in Providence for my two-leg flight to Minneapolis. My flight was supposed to leave at 9 a.m. About 8:45, they came on the horn and told us that there will be a delay in taking off, not because of mechanical issues; not because of weather; but because the oxygen tanks on the plane had gotten too HOT overnight (how this happens in winter, I am still at a loss), and they needed to wait for the tanks to cool down before we could take off. We were off about 1 hour 10 minutes late, and I realized that it was pretty much gonna be the case that I was going to miss my connecting flight in Detroit.

We landed in Detroit at precisely the time of departure of my connection. Thanks very much Northwest. I got into Detroit terminal and they had already re-routed me on the next flight, so that was pretty smooth. Plus, the next flight was only about 1.5 hours after the one I missed, so all was looking up.

We took off from Detroit and the flight was pretty smooth. I got a good nap and we were on course for landing in Minneapolis. About 30 minutes before our scheduled landing time, the flight crew came on to tell us that we were going to have to be in a holding pattern for a bit. No worries I thought…more time to nap.

About 10 minutes after that, they came back on to tell us that only one runway was open in Minneapolis and because we were a smaller plane, we would need to divert the flight to Duluth for refueling.

So here I am now in Duluth. The latest update is that we are number 8 in line for refueling, it’s going to be at least 90 minutes before we takeoff again, and Minneapolis is working out the arrival pattern right now for all flights that have been delayed/diverted. They did say that as a diverted aircraft we have precedence, but who knows how that works.

UGH
UGH
UGH

People are in good spirits now, but it’s going to be a rough one if it turns out to be a lot later than the estimates. Also, it sounds like they are running out of food.

This reminds me of the movie Airplane 2: The Sequel:

Male Passenger: Miss, are you telling us ABSOLUTELY everything?

Elaine: Not exactly, we’re also out of coffee.

Cut to pandemonium in the aisles.

I DID, however, get a nice sunset shot while we were waiting for our fuel. Enjoy.

It's been a short but sweet trip to Britain before my big trip to the US. Today was a very quiet day in Somerset with Graham. We watched a movie and bummed around the house, and then we took the drive toward London. Along the way, we got to stop at Stonehenge, which was a nice thing since I have wanted to see Stonehenge since I was in Britain in 2006. It was quite windy and cool there, but it was so very worth it.

I am now on my way to snowy Boston. My flight leaves in two hours and I am hoping that the weather clears in time for me to land over there. Here's hoping! For now, here are some photos of Stonehenge. See you stateside!

So it is early evening in Crewkerne, County Somerset, here in England. I spent the day visiting the English countryside, strolling the seaside, and having an amazing afternoon tea. But first, let me back up to yesterday.

The flight from Singapore to London on the A380 was good. I was on the upper deck of the plane in economy class. Overall, it was a good experience. What was nice about it was that the seating configuration was better on the upper deck. But it got a lot better than that. There was only one seat next to me, but there was also an ample storage bin between my window seat and the actual window. It was quite a treat since I always seem to have all my gadgets in the seat pocket. This way, I was able to keep them out of there, which kept my legroom at the maximum.

When I landed, I was dreading the passport line at Heathrow, but it ended up being not too bad at all. I believe I waited no more than 20 minutes (a new record!), and I was on my way to baggage claim. There, I also found my bag pretty quickly. All in all, I was headed for the exit in about 45 minutes. At the exit, my mate Graham was waiting for me. Graham and I met on Facebook about a month ago, and we have been chatting ever since. We kinda hit it off online, on the phone and on Skype. In person, it was just as nice. We hopped in his car and headed on the 2.5 hour drive to his home in Crewkerne. At that point I pretty much collapsed from all the travel.

This morning, we headed off to a quick breakfast in a local cafe (it was marginal at best). We then took the car and headed all around the area. We went to Lyme Regis, Charmouth, Weymouth, and Swyne (where we had a great afternoon tea of tea, freshly made scones, clotted cream and strawberry jam). The weather was a bit crisp (but not too cold), but the sun peeked out a few times which was nice. I got some nice photos (see below)

This evening will be a quiet one I think. Graham and I are gonna watch some movies and have a lite dinner since afternoon tea was so heavy (and delicious!). The plan is to leave for Boston tomorrow evening, pending the weather. Apparently, it's supposed to snow heavily. I hope it clears in time for me to get in there to see the family and start the US leg of my trip.

Here are some photos from the travel and from today. Enjoy!

So I made my way to the Airport Lounge and I am having a quick bite and getting ready for my A380 flight. I must say I am a little excited (and, as always, a little nervous) to be flying today. I took a photo of my boarding pass:



I love that is says "UPPER DECK". Woo hoo! If you go to www.seatguru.net, you can see the seating configuration and see where I am. I am basically toward the back of the plane on the upper deck, but the good thing is that I am in a seating configuration where there will be only one person next to me, as opposed to the lower deck where there are three seats on the sides. It's a win win :)

The flight to London is about 14 hours, so I will hopefully be able to get some photos on the flight to share with my friends (and there seem to be more and more of them) who are very interested in my taking this flight.

Well, that's all to report here. Until next post from London!

Yesterday was a pretty packed day. I started off getting some breakfast at a cafe located at a shopping centre not too far from the hotel. I spent the breakfast checking out information on the Great Barrier Reef. Hmmm...could that be the next big trip? :)

So I came to Gold Coast on the weekend of the biggest sporting event in the state: the Indy Car 300. While I am not much of a racing fan, and considering the fact that I snagged a free ticket, I decided to check it out for a little bit. There was of course a lot of people that fit the bill (think NASCAR in the US), but the experience wasn't altogether bad. The experience of being that close to the cars was a bit of a rush (if not a bit of a headache inducer) and there was horrible food (think of carnival food), but there were nice views :)

After that experience, I decided to drop some dough at the casino. It was a casino like any other, just that there were a bunch of people with Australian accents :) It was a fun time even though I lost.

I then headed off and got some Mexican food for dinner, which was not very good. the excitement of the nite was at the restaurant when a couple guys left without paying. There was a bit of an incident when the guys came back into the restaurant. They were cursing and some other patrons nearby started laying into them telling them to not use that kind of language. It didn't come to blows, but it was close.

Well, it's been a nice week or so in the area. I am happy to head back home and see Cubby and get back to the routine. The next trip will probably be heading home in December, but there might be something else in the meantime. We'll see what I can cross off the list :)

Here are some photos from yesterday, including a video of the car race. Enjoy!

So I got up a little early yesterday and saw my buddy Richard off as he was heading back to Sydney, and I hopped in the car and headed down to my next destination: Gold Coast. It's about an hour or so drive south of Brisbane and supposed to be the major domestic holiday destination for Australians. It's one of those places with all the attractions: theme parks, wax museums, casinos...you know, the works. This also has about 30 miles of coastline that is quite beautiful.

I got to my hotel, which was more apartment building than hotel, and I got into my apartment which is very nice. The first floor is a foyer, a living/dining/kitchen area, 2 balconies, and a laundry room. The second level is a twin bed and nightstand in an alcove, a bathroom, a main bedroom, and a large balcony that has an outdoor patio set that seats 6. All this and it only cost $130 Australian Dollars ($80 US) per night.

Once I got settled in the apartment, I headed out for a drive. I headed through the main town of Gold Coast called Surfers Paradise. There is a car race going on this weekend, and when I drove by, the sound was deafening. There were also tons of people of course that were flocking around. I was happy to have shuttled right through there. I ended up stopping at an area of the beach called Burleigh Heads. It was this nice stretch of beach that had two rock formations flanking the area.

After Burleigh Heads, I drove back the way I came and stopped in Surfers Paradise, a bit of distance away from the racing. I parked the car and hopped on the beach for a little look-see. While I was on the beach, there must have been some kind of event at the race track that involved jets, because a jet came flying right over my head. There were a couple of times this happened, and I got one of them on the movie function on my camera.

After the beach, I headed to an Indian restaurant for some lunch. I then headed back to my hotel for a little early evening rest. I then went out in search of dinner and settled on Subway and then headed back to the hotel where I stayed the rest of the night.

Here are a few photos from yesterday, including Burleigh Heads and the bustling skyline of Surfers Paradise in the distance. Tomorrow it's back to Singapore!

Here are the photos as promised...

Whenever I have headed to Aussie over the past year, I have usually spent some time inside of the city and I have tried to take advantage of some time outside the city. Day 3 was my "outside the city" time. My mate Richard and I rented a car and headed off toward Mount Tamborine, an interior area about 1 hour south of Brisbane. The area is apparently one that is quite good for hang gliding. No, I did not actually do that, but I could see why this was the case.

We started off at a cheese shop called Witches Chase. They did all their own cheeses, yogurts and other items. We sampled what seemed like almost all the cheeses, and we decided to purchase two of them: a chili gouda and a cloth bound cheddar. YUM.

We then headed off exploring the area driving nearly the entire area checking out different lookout points and such. After some time there, we decided to head off down toward Lamington National Park, which according to my travel book, was a must see. We headed south toward the national park road, and we were on our way. Our destination was a place called O'Reilly's, although we didn't really know what this was. At least it was a place to aim. O'Reilly's ended up being about 35-40 kms away and was on the other side of some very winding mountain roads, some of which which suitable for only one lane at a time. When we got to O'Reilly's, we found it was a big mountain resort. There were a few things there, but not much in the end. We pretty much turned around, and because of the remoteness of this place, the only way to get out was to go back the way we came. It actually ended up being nice because it was one of those drives where the view looked completely different driving back.

The GPS in the rental car conked out and we were trying to figure out why. It seemed like the power outlet in the car was malfunctioning. We called Avis on the way back and it looked like we had to head over to the airport to get it checked out. It was a bit of an inconvenience, but it did turn out to be a fault of the car, and we were given a luxury car in its place. Not a bad switch. After that, we headed back to the room for some relaxation.

Dinner was at a place called era in South Brisbane. It was a place we had settled on after we made a couple of attempts to find a good Mexican restaurant. We had some drinks and some tapas, and then we were off to the bar for a couple more drinks.

Today is my trip down to Gold Coast. There is some Indy car racing event this weekend which might make it a bit crowded, but it should be nice to visit nonetheless.

I will post some pics of yesterday a little later. Until then!

So one thing I will say for Brisbane: the weather is great. Day 2 was a nearly picture perfect day almost all day. There was not a cloud in the sky for the majority of the day. The temperature was in the mid 70s and it was not too humid. SO NICE :)

The morning started with a quick shift over to my other hotel. I shifted because my mate Richard was heading up from Sydney, so we decided to take in a nicer room at a nicer hotel. After settling in there, we headed out to the river for a trip up and down to take in the great weather. It was quite nice. We got on what was a commuter boat, but it provided some nice views and some very nice breezes, which turned a little on the cool side in the mid-afternoon, but it was still quite nice. There is a bridge climb here (on a bridge called the Story Bridge) that is the same idea as the Sydney Harbour Bridge which I did back in 2003.

After the boat ride, it was time to just walk around a bit and meander back to the hotel to rest a bit before evening activities. We headed off to South Bank for some dinner at a place called The Point. It was quite nice. I had garlic sauteed portobello mushrooms with rocket and parmesan, and polenta with an olive and tomato ragout. We then headed back to the city area and headed into the casino for a little gambling. I naturally went to the blackjack table, as that is my game. I started off with $100 and was down to about $25 at one point, but I quickly brought it back and walked away winning $42.50. Woo hoo! Drinks on me...which is what we did next before we headed back for the evening.

Today, we are headed down to Mt. Tambourine, which is about halfway between here and Gold Coast. It should be a nice trip. Until next post, here are a couple pics. The casino is the second pic of the nice building mostly bathed in sunlight.

So in an effort to not have to travel all day Wednesday, I decided to change my flight to Brisbane to do the redeye on Tuesday night. I am glad I did. This was a 7-hour flight instead of a transfer in Perth that would have had me traveling 12 hours.

I was not able to get an emergency exit seat on the flight, so it was a little tight, but I did have the pleasure of sitting next to this woman who is a TV Producer for BBC Sport. She was on her way to Australia for the Rugby League World Cup. We had nice conversations, and she hinted at possibly being able to get me tickets to Wimbledon one of these days. I think I will keep that contact close :)

So I landed about 8:45 yesterday morning and did the whole passport and bag and quarantine thing (complete with black lab and beagle illegal foodstuff sniffers). I then went and recharged my Australian SIM card which was very simple. The nice thing about that is I have the same telephone number as I did before, so it felt like I was coming back to a familiar place.

I too the very easy Airtrain into the city from the airport and got off at Central Station and walked to my hotel only to find out that I couldn't check in until 2, and it was 10. So I stored my bags and went out exploring the city. As I expected, the city centre was a bit compact, but what I didn't expect was that the city was not very flat :) The city was built not on flat ground, and it definitely gave it some character. There were underground malls and places (like my hotel) high on hills.

I finally was able to get into my hotel room and SHOWER...ahhhh. Then I spent the rest of the afternoon resting cuz I got a total of about 30 minutes of sleep on the flight. After my rest, I met up with a friend who I have been chatting with online and we met for dinner (Mexican...YUM) and a stroll around the city. He has been in Brisbane for a couple years now, and I got to see some areas of the city that really made me like it here.

I didn't last too late since I had been going around all day on no sleep, so I retired to the hotel and conked out at an early hour. It is not a surprise that I slept very well.

Here are some photos from yesterday. More later!

Today was a long day, but overall, it has been very nice. It started off early in Singapore at Changi Airport. Juanita and met up and got on the 8:50 flight to Chiang Mai, Thailand. For those of you who don't know, Chiang Mai is the second largest city in Thailand, and located up in the north of Thailand, about a 1 hour flight from Bangkok. It's a considerably smaller city, but it still has a decent energy. When we arrived, we got settled in our nice hotel and then headed off to explore. We walked the main street of the city, had a spot of lunch (which included sticky rice with mango...YUM) and then we did some shopping and walking. We stumbled upon this spa where we decided to book 2.5 our treatments consisting of hot oil massages and foot reflexology. After a short trip back to the hotel, it was time for the spaaaaaaaah.

I (naturally) opted for a male masseuse and Juanita chose a female. Both were excellent. They were, well, let's say they were thorough. It was quite relaxing.

After the spaahhh, we headed off to dinner. We had the cuisine that everyone naturally has when they come to Thailand...Mexican :) In fact, it was better than any Mexican I have had in Singapore (which is not saying TOO much, but still). After dinner, we headed off to the night market for some shopping till we were dropping.

Now it's back at the hotel. We have an early day tomorrow. We are heading to Doi Suthep, which is a temple on a hill that requires a bit of a climb. We are up for the challenge. Wish is luck! Until then, here are a couple of photos from today.


Our Hotel Room


The outside of our hotel


It wouldn't be Thailand without the temples...

So the past couple of days have been very restful and very interesting. Saturday in Bintan consisted of sunning, a facial at the spa and a nice dinner at the resort I was staying. That was about the extent of the day on Saturday.

Today was a bit of a different day. I took a resort shuttle into the city to a couple of "malls" - I put malls in quotes because this would be a loose description of what I went to today. The first stop was a place called Ramayana. It was basically a really bad Muslim Wal-Mart. Plus, I was happy to see that the US is not the only place that exploits religious holidays for a sale. I thought Ramadan was quite a sacred holiday, but there it was...Ramadan sale. Too bad none of the items would fit me anyway :)

The next stop was not much better. It was this place in the center of Tanjung Pinang (the main city of Bintan) called Bestari Mall. It was pathetic. The lights were barely on, and almost every store was running on a generator. Thanks, but I think I will skip the dairy counter at the market at THAT mall. Otherwise, it was more clothes, and a slightly interesting bookstore. Get me back to the resort!

This afternoon, I had lunch by the pool and then checked out and did some reading before it was time to hit the ferry back to Singapore.

I don't usually have these kinds of holidays, you know, the ones where you go somewhere to do absolutely nothing. I guess I could get used to these every now and then.

Here are some photos from the weekend. Friday, I leave for Chiang Mai Thailand. Can't wait!

In celebration of my birthday (yes, I turned a ripe ol' 35 last weekend), I decided to take the weekend away from Singapore. I am currently on Bintan Island in Indonesia, which is about a 2-hour ferry ride from Singapore. Last night was the transit to Bintan, and it was rough, but it came through OK.

Today, I spent some time by the pool and surely got a burn (I don't tan well anymore as I am not much of a sun worshiper). It's is coming up on Noon local time in Bintan (which is 11 hours ahead of US Eastern Time instead of the 12 in Singapore) and I am contemplating important things like lunch and what I am going to do until 3 when my facial is happening :)

Bintan is an island southeast of Singapore and about 3 times the size. The population is about 1.5 million (which is very small for Asia) and the resort in which I am staying is all the way on the east coast of the island in a very secluded area.

Anyway, Internet access is painfully slow here, and I am not very interested in spending the rest of the day online in the lobby (no Internet in the room). I am taking pics and will try to post them at the end of the weekend. Until then!

After the Blue Mountains, I drove back toward Sydney, but about an hour north to an area called the Central Coast. This area is where Sydneysiders spend their weekends and short vacations. It’s a beautiful section of coastline. It was here I was meeting up with Steve, a guy I met virtually back when I first moved to Singapore. He was from the area, and he had just moved back to live in his childhood home. Only now, he is the only one in the house. It was quite nice of him to offer his place to me.

We met on Friday night at his place in Terrigal (which I found courtesy of the GPS I purchased from Avis) and we ended up having a nice dinner and a front row seat to watching the Olympics opening ceremony. The ceremony was quite spectacular, and so was the dinner.

The next day, after sleeping in quite late, Steve and I headed around the Central Coast for a tour of the area. We saw some amazing beaches, some beautiful rock formations, and some quaint little beach towns. The weather was quite amazing. I would say it was about 65-70F, and nothing but bright sunshine. I miss this weather…:)

Saturday evening consisted of us preparing a homemade Mexican meal. We made burritos and had some chips and Coronas. YUM! We also had some (light) ice cream which was a nice end to the excellent dinner.

This morning it was breakfast on the beach. We ate at this surfside café overlooking Terrigal Beach, and once again it was amazing weather…perhaps a little cooler than yesterday. Oh and I introduced Steve to fluffernutters. We were at the market and the checkout clerk laughed at us for buying peanut butter and fluff together. It was really funny, but when Steve tried it this morning, I think he liked it, even if was a little too sweet for him. That's my little gift to him for letting me crash at his place :)

So now I am at the airport waiting to head out to Singapore. I was supposed to leave at 3:55 p.m. local time here in Sydney. I have just been told that the flight is not leaving until 6:10 local time. Oh well, as long as I get home before work tomorrow :)

It’s been a nice (albeit short) vacation. I have definitely reaffirmed my love of Australia. I am already looking forward to coming back! Here are some photos of my last couple of days.
Terrigal Beach


More remote part of the Central Coast


Oh no! I am falling into the beautiful scenery!


SUCH a great sandwich :)


Bye Sydney!

Yesterday I drove up from Sydney to the Blue Mountains, about 1 hour northwest of Sydney, to take in a little bit of nature. I ended up checking in at the historic Hydro Majestic Hotel in a town called Medlow Bath, which turns out was a great location to situate myself for what I wanted to do up here. My room was small, but the view was AMAZING. I have included the shot from my room below.

Once I got settled in at the hotel, I headed over to Scenic World, which a skyway, a railway, a cableway and a walkway down in the valley. The location of this attraction was right atop the Jamison Valley, which contains views of many mountain tops as well as the famous rock formation called the Three Sisters (don't worry, you will see a couple of photos below of this since I took a bunch of shots). When I first arrived at Scenic World, the weather was a little rough. It was hailing, and then it was raining, then it snowed a bit, but it finally settled into a cold rain. I was worried the rides would not run, but they assured me that it runs no matter what. I started on the skyway, which cut across the tallest part of the area, so the views were amazing. On the way over, the rain was pretty strong, and it cut into the skyway car as half of the car was open air. It was pretty cold! I would say it was no warmer than 40F there. On the other side of the Skyway, I did some walking around, and the weather was slowly improving, even if it wasn't getting much warmer.

After the Skyway, I headed over to the Scenic Railway. This was a rail that plunged down to the valley floor at an angle that sometimes seems almost completely vertical. I hasn't secured my bag, so that was almost a BIG problem :) At the bottom, there was a forest walk with historical information about the mining that took place in the area. It was a short walk over to the Cableway where I was taken back up to the top station.

All in all, it was a nice time there. Yeah, it was a bit touristy, but it was definitely worth the time.

After Scenic World, I drove over to Echo Point, which is closer to the Three Sisters, and provided equally amazing views. I did a 1-mile walk to the Three Sisters rocks and back. At one point, I think the wind swirled up to about 50 mph. If it was any colder, it would have been unbearable, but it was OK.

After Echo Point, I headed past my hotel the other way toward a view called Govett's Leap. At this point, had decided to come out, and it provided for some pretty wonderful vistas. After that visit, it was time to head back to the hotel for a bit.

I got real lazy and ordered room service in the room. Yeah, it was pricey, but I was beat, and besides, I had to stick around for my 8 p.m. massage :) Dinner was a tasty veggie pizza and a cheese plate with fruit and crackers. OK, time for the massage.

I have never had a hot stone massage before, so I decided to give it a try. It was SO relaxing. Basically, these volcanic stones are heated to high temps in a crock pot and then used with oil and massaged. It was quite nice and was a great end to the day.

Today, I am headed over to the Central Coast area of New South Wales, which is about 1 hour north of Sydney, and about 2 hours away from where I am now. It should be a nice drive, and I will prob leave very soon to avoid traffic and to get some lunch along the way.

Here are some photos. Enjoy and until next time...


The view from my room


A look down into the misty Jamison Valley from above


The Scenic Skyway


A rainbow in the valley


Me with the Three Sisters


Three Sisters on their own


Govett's Leap


Sunset at the hotel

The flight to Sydney from Adelaide was smooth. I got my rental car and was on my way to the hotel in the center of the city. It was time to drive on the left side of the road again! It wasn't that bad really, but I was navigating smaller streets here in Sydney than in Melbourne, so it was a true test :)

The hotel I am staying at is called Hyde Park Inn and it sits right on Hyde Park. Check out the last pic to see the picture taken of the park and the war memorial from the balcony of my 12th floor room.

Once I got settled in, I gave a call to my friend Marcus. He and I have been chatting since I moved to Singapore, and it was nice to finally meet him. We ended up having lunch at a place called Burgerlicious, around the corner from my hotel. Don't think I ate a hamburger or anything. They had veggie options :) From there, we walked through Hyde Park by the War Memorial, ducked into St. Mary's Cathedral to escape a passing shower, and then walked all the way up to the harbor where we saw Mrs. Macquarie's Chair, a rock formation that was built for the wife of one of the early settlers of Sydney. It's a neat area with cool lookouts to the Harbour Bridge and Opera House, as well as the rest of the harbour area.

We continued to walk along the harbour over to the Opera House and then to Circular Quay, which is the main ferry landing for the city. It's such a vibrant harbour area and even though it was a Wednesday afternoon, it was still hopping. Most of the rest of the afternoon was spent walking the city area going into shops.

We decided to grab Thai for dinner. Of course we found the most appropriately named restaurant: Thai Princess. Actually, it seemed to have gotten some very good reviews online, so we checked it out. It did not disappoint. The food was really well prepared. I had this rice side dish where they mixed in peanut sauce with the rice, and then they put more peanut sauce on top. YUM!

After dinner, it was time to check out a couple of bars. The first one, The Oxford, was an OK place. There was actually a separate area of the establishment that had slot machines, so I threw in $5 into the 1-cent machine. Didn't last long :) After a quick beer there, we went on to the next bar, Stonewall, which was named in honor of the bar in New York where the first official uprising took place in the struggle for equal rights for gays and lesbians. At Stonewall, they were having an event. When we walked in the door, some guy slapped a number on me (I believe it was 727), and if anyone was interested in me, he would write a note and bring it to the organizers and then they would let all who received messages know by posting the numbers on a big TV screen. It was a fun time. No one called my number, but it was fun to hang out with Marcus and a couple of his friends.

By the time that was over, it was time to head home and get some rest for today. Today I am driving up to the Blue Mountains to check it out up there. It is quite cool temperature in Sydney, and I am sure it is going to be much cooler up there, but it's a nice change from Singapore (in many ways).

Here are some photos. Until next time :)

So when I first booked my ticket to Sydney, I was unsure as to why it was such a long flight compared to the others listed. That is because there is a stop en route. DUH.

Anyway, so here I am in Adelaide waiting for the next flight. I guess I can't count this as visiting Adelaide. However, after talking to my neighbor on the flight who is from Adelaide, and others who have mentioned as well, it's not the most exciting place to visit. I may head back here, but it won't be one of my priorities.

I got a small amount of sleep, and I am sure I will be fine once I land in Sydney.

Well, at least I am on Australian soil...good to be back.

So after one full day of sleep, and one full day of work, I am writing that I am back in Singapore. The flight was fine, yesterday at work was fine, and I had a nice dinner last night and I bought a new Crumpler bag.

It's good to be back in Singapore, but I do miss being home. I guess the feeling is more about being home than it is about not being in Singapore. Singapore is a nice place and I enjoy it here, but home is home. I dunno how else to say it.

It was great to see everyone on my trip home and to make some nice new friends. It's amazing how many good friends your good friends have :)

Well, the photos will come along soon. Sydney is next in a couple weeks. Can't wait!

Yesterday was a bit of a quiet day hanging out with Pete and Kev at their place. It was nice to spend time with them since they left this morning for a week up in Provincetown. They have been so nice to let me stay with them and subsequently use their place while they are not here. I am so grateful to have such good friends.

In the late afternoon, I headed over to Brooklyn Heights and spent the evening with my aunt and uncle. It's always good to see them. We had a nice dinner and then we spent the rest of the evening chatting about politics, life, etc. Chalk it up to some of the things that I miss here in NYC.

Today I am planning to see my cousins Josh and Sauni during the day and then I am off to see Greg for some party. I am looking forward to it all.

That's about it from here. The weather has been spectacular here. Can't wait to get out into it today.